CHAPTER 2:
**LYON**
"Treachery!" King Cyrus boomed. "We already have a crown prince." He spat out angrily. Lines of rage evident on his face.
"By inheritance Draco will become king after his father!" Queen Minerva hissed. She walked towards the young Prince filled with so much rage."YOUUUUUUUU!!" She screamed, her eyes showing how much hatred she has for her son , the whole family was against the young Prince."WILL.....NEVER...BE...KING!" She said each word cynically. " I'll nail you to a rotten coffin myself if I have to. And you know what? I'll shove your bloody beloved inside it with you."
We all turned to where we heard someone clapping, Crown prince Draco laughed like an evil tyrant. "Welldone !" He shouted. "Nerodit, even your fate doesn't know its place...beneath me." He said hair breathed away from me. " After everything this family has done for you,you decide to be a treacherous vlad. You decide to be.....KING! Your very existence is a mistake, a joke." He roared. "Over my dead body will you be next in line for the throne."
"We need to decide what to do with him." Queen Minerva suggested.
"You are all dismissed!". King Cyrus announced.One by one, they all exit the room muttering and whispering incoherently. Everyone left, save my family, Lyon and the royal guards.
"Your services are no longer required of you. You are excused." King Cyrus said to me, making me pique an eyebrow and replied.
"Whatever the fate the royal family intends to bestow on him,as the kingdom seer, I need to be aware and present."
" You dare defy me?" He questions.
I looked away and answered " Merely doing my job."
"Let the old hag bear witness father," Crown Prince Draco said mindlessly "We don't need his distraction right now. We have a traitor to convict. Right?" He threw an open question.
"Fine." Cyrus the fool agreed. " You owe him for allowing you to linger around here." He concluded.
"What should we do to him?" Prince Lucius, one of the twins, popped the question. " Feed him to the wilds or kill him right where he stands?" He suggests .
"Nothing that will make us look bad or stain our family name." Minerva boldly states "So keep your bloody ideas out of your head." She warns Lucian.
" Mother," Prince Draco called out, "we cannot possibly let him live. He is going to destroy everything you and father built. He has never been useful to us or to the kingdom. Why bother sparing a waste of a person." He pointed at Vlad.
"Send him to his private wing. Where he will never set foot outside. Where he will never see the walls of another room,where he will never socialize, where he will no longer be noticed. Yes, the story of his prophecy will be the talk of town but it will die down as rumors as he will no longer be seen in public. This way he won't have anyone to commit treachery with."
The king decided.
The room was thrown into comfortable silence. Everyone looked at each other and then nodded but Draco won't have it, he won't be harboring a felon.
" What if he breaks out?" Prince Draco asked. " what if he gathers more people to side him?"
"No one except the royal family is to visit him except one time in a year, then I leave the rest to you son, to handle him right." Father ordered.
"Your wish is my command Father, I won't let you down." Prince Track answered with a half smile directed to Prince Vlad.
" Keeping him from the world won't stop his prophecy." I advised, moving closer to stand beside the young prince Vladmir. "I'd rather advise to look closely at the prophecy and find out its mystery."
" You are just a seer, you are an ordinary voice of the gods, you are not part of the royal family, so, whatever we decide is our family decision. You just focus on seeing the future or whatever it is you do." King Cyrus Uttered.
"And keep your advice to your birds and creepy creatures." Prince Rodawon, second in line for the throne mocked.
" Very well, I'll take my leave__" I looked across the room and in deep breath "But, do not say I did not warn you. Separating him from the world shall do no one any good." I concluded and then walked out of the hall in long strides not waiting for comments.
Weeks had gone by since the royal family decided to isolate the young prince, against my advice and wisdom have they committed this great sin. Things returned to normal, no one seemed to care about the prophecy, they all returned to their daily activities until one morning where the peace and quietness turned to chaos. I walked around my bottle of elixirs that I have collected for ages, in different eras and times, future,past and present. Each one has its own color according to its toxic or harmless nature . My home to the outside world is a cave, a scary one at that. Most people assume spider webs would hang around and it's inside filled with venomous creatures; looking like a witch's lair. But, it is in fact dirt free and creatures free, nothing like a witch's lair as they assume but I've never for once tried to correct the notion.
I have collected books of wisdom, and made a wooden shelf nothing outsiders know of,for I have indeed seen civilization and seen empire rise and fall. So I just need to improvise my home. I secluded dangerous books filled with spells that could ruin countries and villages, you might wonder why I have that. But,I'm the seer. I need vast knowledge about everything,good and bad, pure or evil,forces of nature and the likes. I created walls and walls of spells to hide everything in case a wandering villager might want a quick peek. To him it is all dusty,an old worn out place.
I heard footsteps coming close to my abode, I've lived a while to detect things far and near, study minds pending on human expression or actions. Right now the footsteps belong to the guards.
"Lyon, It is I, Thaddeus the chief guard and by the order of king Cyrus we are to escort you to the castle." The guard informs. I walked to my door and ordered
"Leave!" I boomed.
" I only obey my king, not you seer." He replied. With my hyper senses I know he has his hands on his sword ready for any attack. I opened the door and swiftly stood behind them,they looked around and found me behind them.
" I don't like being summoned." I glared.
"When the king orders..." the guard confidently said " You jump." He finished. The other guards around him chuckled. I scrunched my noses and smiled
"You mean.....you jumped," I teased. "Afterall, you are the guard here....sent
on an errand, is that not so?"
" I'm the chief guard." He defended
" still a guard." I pushed trying to gauge a reaction
"We leave for the castle," he instructed the guards behind him and then turned to me "I will be the one to run my sword through your sly throat seer,and you won't see it coming." He arrogantly said and walked away.
" You would be long dead before then." I whispered not even he could hear me.
Thaddeus the king's chief of guards led me along with the others ,my home is far from this monstrosity of a castle. It takes an hour to get here by foot except you have a horse or a walking shelter, something the future calls a vehicle. Nevertheless, we are finally here and I can't wait to get over whatever the king has to say. Everyone knows he hates me just as much as i hate him,and it has been
like that way before he became king.
Scoff...king.
I was escorted inside the main hall, where Cyrus holds his meetings and the likes. The royal call man announced my arrival and they all stopped what they were discussing and looked in my direction like I was the center of attraction. Which I clearly am, no pun intended. The king clothed in his royal apparel, same wrinkles and dark iris, on his right hand,queen Minerva, sinfully beautiful as ever. Her eyes hold the same innocence it carried since she was little,but behind that innocence is a woman eaten up by her hatred and wickedness. Prince Draco and his siblings look well enough considering their brother is in isolation. Other respective members of the upper house sit by the right side of the hall then the lower class representatives at the left. So much has changed since the last meeting.
I mean the last one I was in.
"About time you appear, Lyon, " king Cyrus broke the silence. " I know you prefer your solitary place to a home, but the kingdom beckons on the seer's advice." He explains
"Interesting," I nodded, a sly grin appearing on my face. "Not like anybody here cares about my opinion the last time I offered them."
" That was behind closed doors Lyon, and it should remain there." Queen Minerva threatens.
" I wonder what is hidden behind that door." I reasoned out loud " Oh well I'm here, at your services" I cocked my head to the king.
A man stood from the upper class,and looked at the king for confirmation of some sort. And he had his go ahead signal.
" A scroll was sent to the crown,from an unknown kingdom," he passed a scroll to me.
"From the seal you'll see it's of some royalty of some sort. One we know nothing about." He sighed " two weeks ago 3 castles in Romania were attacked, no one knows who its attackers are ." He concluded " It seems to be invisible, it took all the people away, leaving the castle abandoned, not even a roach is seen." King Cyrus said looking passive.
"And how is this any concern of ours." I questioned, looking from each face to the other with a confused look.
"From what is on the scroll, it is an invitation to Northern Romania, and we all know there is nothing in that region but death and chaos." King Cyrus finally breaks the silence. I know they are putting a front to how the supposed invitation and attacks are affecting them.
" Will you accept the invitation?" I asked me, he deadpanned me as though I asked him to forfeit the crown. He laughed maniacally pointing a finger at me.
"Even a new babe knows better than to accept it." He finally said.
"What will you do then?" I asked.
"That's why you are here, to advise us O! great seer." He mocked " The last two villages had the same letter sent to them before they got wiped out." He clarified in a serious note.
" It's obviously a trap. Whether you accept or not, they will raid Bran Castle." I noticed the representatives nodding approvingly.
"What do you suggest we do?" Draco asked, trying to be part of this meeting.
" I suggest you let the adults talk while you listen, crown prince." I shunned with the air of shutting him up. He gulped and Looked at those present in the hall,embarrassed and flared up until his mother gently shook her head, he got the hint to shut up.
" Draco is somewhat right, lyon what do you think, we can't send them a message neither can we go there. What should we do?" Queen Minerva anxiously asked.
After minutes of stunned silence I finally said " Nothing," I looked across the room till I got eye to eye with the king. " Absolutely nothing."
"What if they attack?" King Cyrus asked in worry even though he tried to hide it.
" Then we attack back,we need to be ready and plan for any attack." I replied. I walked out of the hall without being dismissed. They have a whole lot to worry about than me leaving abruptly. fate makes people play right into its palms . And they are walking right into their doom. Nothing I or anyone else could do..
At all.